


From here I know, it's a long way home.

by winteryKite



Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, vaguely post-other near future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-05
Updated: 2019-04-05
Packaged: 2020-01-05 09:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18362906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winteryKite/pseuds/winteryKite
Summary: Bill and Barry Heterodyne return to Europa.A Europa that is very different from the Europa they left.A Europa that is rebuilding.A Europa that has a Heterodyne Queen.





	From here I know, it's a long way home.

Barry does not know what he'll find in Europa. It has been...

He doesn't know how long it's been.

Years.

Decades?

He thinks that Bill doesn't look young any more. He looks tired.

So, so tired.

He is sure he himself does, too.

He remembers that when he was last in Europa, Klaus was there. Taking over everything.

Lucrezia had gloated, back then. That Klaus was hers. Hers, not Bill's, or Barry's.

Lucrezia's body is no more. Barry hadn't thought Bill could look more tired.

 

There is nothing left here. The Geisterdamen preferred dying over talking.

Barry and Bill had cut open their corpses and realized that they couldn't've talked even if they'd wanted to.

Bill knows that this was not her true lair.

Barry knows that they were supposed to die here.

But Lucrezia was always just patient enough to not gloat before she'd truly won. Wherever her true lair is, they cannot reach it.

Not without more information.

(Not without more supplies.)

 

And so, a moon turn after this realization and another to create a way back after finally, finally convincing Bill, they... leave.

Not to Beetleburg. In their state, their presence would draw attention to Punch and Judy. Adam and Lilith, now. And to Agatha.

(Barry thinks of the locket and the headaches it gave her and his heart hurts, hurts for his brilliant young niece, not so young now, probably already an adult. Still plagued with the headaches. It suppresses her spark. Keeps her safe. Safe from Lucrezia. Safe and hidden. And if Lucrezia does manage to find her, the locket will suppress _her_.)

He thinks of a young girl, heterodyning and building, and he gives her the locket and her face drops. The music has stopped. She is safe, and will be as long as she has the locket. But at what cost?)

Not to Mechanicsburg. Nevermind the way the town had pretended to change while they'd been there.

Not to Paris, or to England.

How much of Europa remained, truly remained, with Klaus -- Klaus, friend, lover, comrade --

traitor --

victim? --

with Europa in the hand of the Other?

Would the Jägerkin listen to them over the people who give them the raiding and carnage they crave?

What if they found her? What would they make of her?

Maybe... maybe send a letter to Beetleburg. Tell Adam and Lilith that they've returned, and... and what? Want to know how they've been? What has transpired in their absence?

Beetleburg, while being a vassal of the Wulfenbach Empire, held its own laws. They'd all studied under Beetle, he wasn't a man to bend his knee.

(Except he did.)

(Except he held onto as much as he could.)

 

  
They touch down in the wastelands. Somewhere. They had battled through so much of it you'd think they'd know where.

Bill picks up a dislodged piece of scrap, and inspects it.

It has a flower sigil. Not a noble house, but a personal spark symbol. The Bätterfeß of... Barry can't remember the name.

We're close to Passholdt, he says instead.

Bill scowls, and gives a curt nod. Mechanicsburg would be closer. It will be a detour, but they can't risk being recognized. Passholdt, then south. There are bushels of cochlearia officinalis all around them, but it's not hot yet. April, May, then. They'll be able to get over the mountains without many problems, and find food along the way. Maybe even some herbs and roots and scraps to sell. (Maybe, maybe enough to travel incognito with the Corbettites. Would they be recognized, if they attend the trainsong?

Would the Corbettites allow them to travel with them, despite what their father did to them?)

 

  
Passholdt looks like it has been razed to the ground and rebuilt from the ground up. Gone is the naturally grown mixture of half-timbered houses and caulked walls, interspersed with houses of the same old brick as the city wall.

Rebuilt is a strong word.

Is being rebuilt at this point in time is more accurate.

(A many-legged weasel construct sniffs at them when they enter, but doesn't appear to think they're interesting. It does accept Bill scritching it under the chin, though. It chirps. Barry thinks he recognizes Dr Bren's hand in it.)

It does mean that workers are in need.

There is also a poster on nearly every corner. It depicts a young blonde, bespectacled woman in sturdy working clothes. "We can rebuild! With Science!". "Report all suspected Hive Engines to the authorities!". "Help reclaim Europa from the Wastes!". "Join your local resettlement association today!"  
She wears a Trilobite as her belt buckle.  
"Maintain the Heterodyne's Peace!"

  
They do not stay for long.

  
Barry overhears that the region and road south towards Balan's Gap is being actively cleared by Empire forces.

 

  
In every settlement, there are more of the weasel constructs. Checking every arrival, they notice soon. Barry assumes the guise of misplaced professor from the Institut de l'extraordinaire du Paris, returning to Europa after a long absence studying the ecology of anteaters.

Wasp eaters, designed to sniff out revenants. The Lady Heterodyne working together with the Baron Wulfenbach on restoring order to Europa. And together with the Storm King. All Other tech (Lucrezia's technology) is collected. Revenants quarantined until a cure can be developed. The older people gripe about the Jägerkin helping.

Barry's mind whirrs, and he knows Bill's is, too. Barry remembers the posters and imagines a Spark Queen. An impossible mixture of Albia and Lucrezia and Euphrosynia-as-described-by-the-castle and Teodora and Lilith and Heterodyne. The woman on the posters does not wear the locket. He closes his eyes and sees the Lady Heterodyne, Agatha, little Agatha, only now she's grown and he can see the resemblance to that little girl now that he knows what to look for, the curve of her chin, the way her lips quirk in excited fugue, sitting on her dais like Euphrosynia in one of the paintings, smiling sharply, knife in hand, tribute to her feet, Andronicus and Klaus on either side.  
The Baron Wulfenbach and the Storm King and the Heterodyne Girl. Only it's a Heterodyne Queen and her two consorts.  
Lucrezia had had friends among the Valois.

Bill imagines Lucrezia, and decides to focus on the road instead.

He does not focus on healing.

Barry notices something is up under everything else -- of course he does, Bill is still his brother. But whatever it is, it gets worse fast. Going east was a blessing in disguise. The Great Hospital will help. Barry just hopes that the Castle does not recognize them. (It couldn't reach the town after the attack. He hopes it still can't. Is still broken.)

The Castle does not spare a second in herding them into its halls, declares that the Lady will be excited to see them, when a short man in fatigues barges in and yells at it to not wake her, they only finally got her to sleep after three days of being in full madgirl mode, whatever this is can wait until tomorrow, _he will take down the weathervanes, see if he doesn't_.  
Must be the Chief Minion. He takes a look at the both of them and dryly states that they look like they need a drink.  
A single laugh escapes Barry's lungs. Definitely the Chief Minion.  
Next to him, Bill sways.  
The Chief Minion adds that _that_ guy needs a doctor, stat. No discussion. Now.

Barry agrees, even if Bill tries shaking his head. They're ushered into a carriage and are driven over to the Great Hospital.

Their exhaustion catches up with them.

 

  
Barry wakes to footsteps quickly approaching, and Lucrezia demanding to know _why_ she hadn't been _woken_.  
(She had wanted to copy herself over her daughter, over Agatha, and the revenants would recognize her.)  
(He hears flats, and two pairs of heavy work boots. He does not hear the click-click of the kind of shoes that Lucrezia used to wear. Sturdy and sensible, yes, but a hard sole and slight heel nonetheless.)  
The Chief Minion yells back that they finally got her to sleep after three days, and remember the miniature death ray while she repaired the castle, you know, the one that blasted a hole in the mountain? The one the _Castle_ referred to as too high-powered even dialed all the way down?  
A third voice tells them to pipe down, this is a hospital. And you will wait outside until they want to see you.

Barry catches a glimpse of her when the doctor comes in, ostensibly to check on their vitals.

From the other side of the room, he hears Bill's voice, hoarse, asking if it's really -- really his -- or if --

The doctor harrumphs and states that the Other has been removed from the Lady Heterodyne's head. They can look over the notes later, if it keeps them resting in their beds.

 

And then he asks if they want to see her.

Barry blinks, and then looks over to Bill. Do you?, he asks.

Bill inhales sharply, exhales more slowly, looks him dead in the eyes and  _nods_.

 

Yes, Barry answers the doctor. It's been too long.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to DocMatoi and gelpens for poster slogan suggestions, and many thanks to gisho for betareading.
> 
> And the Girl Genius discord for enabling me.
> 
> "Bätterfeß" is the transylvanian saxonian trivial name for bittersweet nightshade.


End file.
